British PM turns to isolationists

Prime Minister David Cameron’s statements on Europe affirm the blinkered , small island mentality of many Brits.
Photo: AP

by
Emma-Kate Symons

It seems that little has changed since Monty Python’s Flying Circus performed its hilarious but accurate sketch back in the early 1970s, satirising British attitudes towards Europe.

In the competition for the most derogatory term for the people of Belgium, “Miserable Fat Belgian Bastards" won out over “The Sprouts" and “The Phlegms".

Four decades after the United Kingdom joined the fledgling European Common Market, relations between Albion and Brussels (the de facto capital of the European Union) have deteriorated to possibly their worst state ever.

Prime Minister
David Cameron
is under pressure from his increasingly paranoid euro-sceptic rump, and the rise of extremist movements such as Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party.

The PM is battling poor personal polling. But instead of rising to the occasion with some courageous leadership, Cameron is playing a highly dangerous, isolationist game, with pledges to block European Union treaty changes to shore up the euro, “repatriation of powers" from Brussels, and talk of a referendum on Britain’s membership.

Cameron’s spoiler tactics could lead to the UK’s ultimate withdrawal from the EU. Apart from the fact that most economists view this populist claptrap as madness, should we in Australia and the rest of the world even care?

The answer is yes, as US assistant secretary of state for European affairs Philip Gordon suggested earlier this week when he sent a stern warning to the British Prime Minister about the risks of staging a referendum.

The chair of Germany’s European affairs committee, Gunther Krichbaum also chimed in about the multiple losers from Cameron’s “disastrous" politics of “blackmailing" the EU.

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Moving beyond the reprimands, it’s not only the British, Europe and the Americans that stand to be hurt by Britain’s pigheadedness, and its unwillingness to acknowledge the enormoustrade, travel and investment benefits it derives from being in the world’s biggest free-trade grouping.

The global economy, already rocked to its core since 2010 by the euro zone crisis, does not need more uncertainty emanating from Europe.

This is not a decade ago or even the Thatcherite 1980s. The game plan has utterly changed since the GFC, as well as the euro zone and EU-wide financial, economic and political turmoil.

“Brexit" is the new “Grexit". We could all suffer from Cameron’s short-sighted stance, and constant pandering to the jingoistic anti-Continental press.

British exceptionalism is dragging down Europe when the focus should be on debt reduction, a form of banking union, and fighting soaring unemployment.

The UK is so rarely willing to give in return for the substantial advantages accruing to it from EU membership. Yet Britain has been urging much closer European political and economic union to prevent the currency and banking crises that have been gripping the euro zone grouping over the past several years.

By boycotting the EU, Britain would only entrench Germany’s overwhelming dominance in Europe, an outcome it hardly desires.

Peter Mandelson, a former minister in Tony Blair’s government, correctly characterised the PM’s loony New Year intervention as “economically insane".

So what exactly is eating Cameron, and the majority of British voters, if the polls are to be believed?

The Financial Times made the understatement of the new year in its editorial, explaining that “The United Kingdom has long been a reluctant European", but that it should nonetheless hold to hard-headed consideration of national self-interest and press ahead with a referendum.

Imagine if Australia behaved so appallingly towards its Asian neighbours?Such bad sportsmanship, bound to have negative economic consequences, is unthinkable.

The problem with the British is that they are already nationally self-interested, and are stuck in their small island mentality. They refused to join the common currency, an act that has not prevented their decline into what some analysts call economic stagnation. Now they want to pick and choose between EU rules and policies when it suits them.

Forty years ago they had no compunction about abandoning former colonial cash cows such as Australia to join the burgeoning European economic community, automatically excluding our nation from preferential trade terms.

That was understandable realpolitik. Australia also made a pragmatic choice, refocusing its trade policy on the Asian region.

British opinion leaders and plenty of Conservative politicians are urging Cameron to bring it on with a referendum to settle the perennial European question. The commentariat is confident that despite polls showing most British want out, any referendum suggesting the UK leave the EU would be rejected.

They should beware what they wish for. When French president
Jacques Chirac
held a vote on the European Union constitution in 2005, the political establishment received a rude slap in the face. Key dissident figures within the major parties encouraged a majority to deliver a resounding “no", and the fallout is still being felt today.